Premier David Eby has walked back a key portion of the NDP’s tariff response bill following a backlash over concerns that the proposed legislation would give the government the power to bypass the legislature.
“I didn’t get the balance right in terms of the ability to move quickly and necessary safeguards,” Eby said during a news conference in Vancouver on Friday. “The level of anxiety and concerns I was hearing from key stakeholders … it was pretty clear we needed to have another look at this.”
Eby says the government will remove Part 4 of the Economic Stabilization Tariff Response Act, the section that would give the cabinet the power to bypass the legislature and implement regulations in response to the “actions of a foreign jurisdiction” or any measure that supports the economy.
WATCH | Premier explains his change of heart to the media:
B.C. Premier David Eby said his party will be pulling Part 4 of Bill 7, his government’s response to U.S. tariffs, in response to concerns from key stakeholders. Eby said that while his government needs to be able to act quickly in response to the U.S. president’s economic targeting of British Columbia, democratic and legislative oversight is still a priority.
The other parts of the bill involve breaking down interprovincial trade barriers and giving B.C. the ability to toll trucks that drive through the province to Alaska.
The about-face follows negotiations this week between Sharma and the two B.C. Green MLAs over changes to the bill introduced on March 13. Critics included the B.C. Conservatives, some business groups and former B.C. Liberal premier Gordon Campbell.
Campbell told CBC News earlier this week he did not buy Eby’s argument that the emergency powers are needed so B.C. can respond more swiftly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“It is completely false to suggest that the legislature cannot move quickly. It can move quickly,” said Campbell, who was premier from 2001 to 2011.
“It is the move of an autocrat, not someone who claims to be a New Democrat,” he said of Eby. “It’s a move that says the legislature will effectively be suspended for two years while whatever the premier decides to do gets done. That is not how a democracy works.”
Campbell said it’s ironic that in order to respond to Trump’s tariff threats, Eby has taken a page out of the U.S. president’s political playbook.
“We have to recognize that this is a very manipulative bill, suggesting that it’s the only way we can act if he has the sole right to decide. People didn’t elect a dictator,” Campbell said.
Marc Lee, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, talks about the Economic Stabilization Tariff Response Act, which, if passed, would allow the government to respond without having to go through the legislature for debate. B.C. Premier David Eby has said the response is necessary to protect jobs and businesses amid tariff threats. However, opposition parties are not convinced.
B.C. Green MLAs Jeremy Valeriote and Rob Botterell have not yet specified what changes they asked for when they met with Sharma earlier this week.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce had also opposed the bill’s broad scope, after initially expressing support.
The board of trade wrote in a letter that while it supports the measures to break down interprovincial trade barriers, “other parts of Bill 7 are truly unprecedented in scope, including the sweeping powers that would be conferred to the cabinet. While it is clear Trump’s trade war has spurred an economic emergency, it is not clear to us that the sweeping powers are required or justified.”
In a letter to Eby and Sharma, B.C. Chamber of Commerce president Fiona Famulak said Bill 7 “goes too far and that the controversial nature of the legislation will delay timely progress on the substantive and important issue of dismantling interprovincial trade barriers.
“The bill, despite its title, risks creating uncertainty for businesses and British Columbians and undermining B.C.’s ability to stabilize and grow the economy, attract investment and create jobs, all of which fund the public services we rely on,” she added.
The bill is set to be debated after the legislature resumes on March 31.